Latino Submission To Islam.

From: www.homestead.com

My name is Ali , I'm a 32 year old Mexican born in America.
I thought I would make a webpage to tell my story of how I became a Muslim. I think it will Insha'Allah (God willing) help people understand Islam and why it attracted me.
People have a wrong perception about Islam and Muslims,what little they know is usually from movies and telivision which is almost all the time false.
My life before was bad I had no direction in life.I was wasting my life away by dropping out of school in the 11th grade. I would hang out in the streets with my friends "partying" getting high,drinking and selling marijuana,most of my friends were gang members, I myself was never in a gang.
I knew most of them before they turned bad,so it was not a problem. I slowly began to use harder drugs, I had dreams but they seemed to far away for me to make them reality.The more I became depressed the more I turned to drugs as a temporary escape.
One day a friend of mine told me that he knew where to get some good marijuana, We arrived and went inside this apartment their were a couple of people inside,we sat around and talked for a while. My friend and I bought some marijuana and were getting ready to leave when my friend said one man there invited us to his apartment to give him a book.
We left for this man's apartment when we got there,he gave my friend a book and asked him to read it,and said that it might help him out with his problems in life. On the way home I asked my friend to show me the book that the man gave him,it was the Qur'an (Koran).
I had never in my life heard of The Holy Qur'an, I began to briefly read some pages, while I was reading I knew that what I was reading was true, it was like a slap in the face, a wake up call. The Qur'an is so clear and easy to understand. I was really impressed and wanted to know more about Islam and Muslims.
The strangest thing is that I was not looking for a new Religion, I used to laugh at people that went to church and some times said that there was no God,although deep down I knew there was. I decided to go to the Libary a couple of days later and check out the Qur'an. I began to read it and study it, I learned About Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him)and the true story of Jesus son of Mary(Peace be upon him). The Qur'an stressed the fact that God was one and had no partners or a son, this was most interesting to me since I never understood the concept of the trinity.The Qur'an describes the birth of Prophet Jesus (p.b.u.h ) and his mission.There is also a Sura (Chapter) called Maryam (Mary) and tells her story as well.
As a child I always went to church, my mother was a Seventh day Adventist and took my sister and me every Saturday. I never was really religious and stopped going to church when I was about 14 or 15,The rest of my family is Catholic, I always wondered why we were Seventh day Adventist and the rest of my family was Catholic. when we would go visit my family back in Mexico,we went to a Catholic church for weddings and celebrations.
Muhammed (peace be upon him) is the last messenger of God sent to all mankind.The Qur'an tells the story's of all the Prophets such as:
Adam,Abraham,Noah,Issac,David,Moses,
Jesus (Peace be upon them all) just to name a few, told in a clear and understandable manner. I did months of research on Islam I bought a Holy Qur'an at a bookstore and studied about world history and Islam's contributions to medicine and science.
I learned that Spain was a Muslim country for almost a thousand years and that when the Muslims were expelled from Spain by the Christian king and Queen (Ferdanand and Isabela),the Christian Spainards came to Mexico and forced the Aztecs and others to become Catholic, history and my Islamic roots was all becoming clear to me.
After months of study and research I could not deny the truth anymore I had put it off too long, but was still living the life I was before and knew that if I became Muslim I had to give all that up.One day while reading the Qur'an, I began to cry and fell to my knees and thanked Allah for guiding me to the truth. I found out that there was a Mosque by my house so I went one Friday to see how Muslims prayed and conducted thier service.I saw that people from all races and colors attended the Mosque. I saw that they took off thier shoes when entering and sat on the carpeted floor.A man got up and began to call the Adthan (call for prayer) when I heard it my eyes filled up with tears it sounded so beautiful, it was all so strange at first but seemed so right at the same time.Islam is not just a Religion but a way of life.
After going a couple of Fridays I was ready to be a Muslim and say my Shahada (declaration of faith).
I told the Khatib (person giving the lecture) that I wanted to be a Muslim,the following Friday in front of the community I said my Shahada first in Arabic then in English : I bear witness that there is no other God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammed(p.b.u.h) is His Messenger.
When I finished a Brother shouted Takbir! and all the community said Allah O Akbar! (God is great!) a few times,then all the Brothers came and hugged me. I never recieved so many hugs in one day, I will never forget that day it was great. I have been Muslim since 1997, I'm at peace with myself and clear in Religion,bieng Muslim has really changed my life for the better thanks to Almighty God.
I had the blessing of being able to perform Hajj (Pilgrimage) to the Holy city of Mecca, it was a experiance of a lifetime, about three million people from every race and color in one place worshiping Allmighty God, The Creator.
I think that Islam is the answer for the the problems of the youth and society in general. I hope my story Insha'Allah (God willing) will attract more latinos and people of all races to the light of Islam..
If you have any questions and would like more information on Islam in English or Spanish, click on my links.You can also email me.